Where Have All the Original Ideas Gone?

December 16, 2011 3:56 PM

Everything that comes out seems to be a sequel, a prequel, a remake, a revisit, a reboot or a reinterpretation of another artist’s work.

Which is fine if we want to ship easy, predictable safe projects that appease our corporate masters and their incessant pressure to create fail proof work.

But there are no cover bands in the rock and roll hall of fame.

And if we want to walk with greatness, we need to walk a new path.Not an old path in a new way. And not a supposed new path that’s really just a nicely packaged book report of a bunch of old paths.

Something new. Something scary. Something people don’t even have a name for.

Tony LaRussa changed the face of baseball forever by leveraging bullpen statistics. Morphine created an entirely new genre of music by inventing the low rock sound. Kevin Smith shifted film making by redefining the theatrical exhibition window.

This stuff is possible because it’s always been possible.

As long as we’re willing to cede permission, put our face in and step across the lines of artistic safety – at the risk of getting a few black eyes – originality can happen. We wage a war against mediocrity at our own peril.

But first, we need a change of posture.

Instead of copping out by reminding ourselves that there’s nothing new under the sun, we might consider that the sun is really, really huge, and if we can’t find something new under it, perhaps we’re not looking hard enough.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you original or just an echo of somebody else’s brilliance?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “17 Ways to become a Thought Leader,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

Never the same speech twice.